John Harper featured at Writers’ Night

Thursday

Feb 7, 2013 at 12:01 AM

ROCHESTER — The next Rochester Writers’ Night takes place at the Portable Pantry, 12 Hanson St., Thursday, Feb. 7. The feature performer for the evening is John Harper.

Two time Talespinner’s League award winner, and once nominated for Doubleday’s Best Short Fiction award, John D. Harper has written fiction, non-fiction, and journalistic work both in New England and in Texas, where he lived until moving to New Hampshire in 1992. In his latest work, “The Lofty Woodshop,” John regales us with tales of hilarity concerning his life and woodworking adventures in “The throbbing metropolis of Middleton, New Hampshire”. From Zombie Boulders to a million bats, and from Albert Einstein to 89-year-old volunteer fire chief Sparky McAllister, the stories just get crazier as the dilemmas he finds himself in get more absurd. You have to ask yourself, at some point, whether all these things could really happen to a person. When asked, John just smiles.

“It’s kind of like one of those bent wood rockers,” he says. “You start out with everything nice and straight, but by the time you’re done, things get seriously twisted.”

When not writing or promoting his writing, John can often be seen on stage with various local theatre groups, including his own; The Not Ready for Serious Theatre Players.

Sign-ups begin at 6 p.m., followed by the feature performer. After a quick break, the open mic portion of the program begins. Writers may read from their original work. There is a limit of five minutes per participant, with extra rounds if time allows. The evening ends around 7:45 p.m.

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